i think its easier to trade for him esp if the only team he wants to come to is mtl. in fact if florida's pick is not a lottery pick, say its like 19th OA, i'd say trade that and maybe Dach for PLD. say we land Bedard somehow, we'll have too many centers with suzuki, Dach and potentially PLD.

Nah...don't go trading Dach, he has been playing great on the wing too. Lots of good centres coming up this draft in the top 10, but likely won't be difference makers for a couple years, and they'll be on Entry Level deals until Dach's contract is up. Then work out the Cap Situation...

No one is going to complain about too many Centres (Suz-Dach-PLD-Bedard???). St. Louis will find a way to make it work Hughes will just have to find out how to make the money work by 2026.

If they do go the trade route, a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, plus a B prospect should be enough (or maybe even FLA's pick this year). What prospect to give up? prolly depends on who they draft this year.

PLD has the leverage for another year, as WPG will lose him for nothing as a UFA if they can't convince him to stay. Which at this point seems like the case.

PLD in MTL may not be as far fetched as I once thought...

Less than no chance PLD considers a lowball offer sheet. If he signs that cheap the Jets just keep him.

I'm not sure its a low-ball. He's maxed out at 61pts so far....0.7pts per game over his 6 seasons so far. 20-30 goal range, 25-35 assist range. Check some comparables and let me know.

It certainly could go higher, but I'm not sure he'll be in the $8.5 to $9m range on a long term deal. I'd be reluctant to pay that much.

Additionally, if it comes to being concerned that they'll, the Habs could go the trade route cause the Jets know he doesn't want to stay.

You know it's not Habs or nothing right? If you trade for him it'll cost whatever another team is willing to give up. Contract is definitely 9m plus rn on a long term deal he's a 1c that is physical basically a worse m Tkachuk that's a center. Who's to say that this is his peak that's why he gets 9.5m imo he is breaking out and is young and buying ufa is expensive. Also cap is going up man a comparable to him is the Tkachuks basically as he's slightly better than Brady but worse than Matthew and he's a c so that increases the value 9m see

Check and see what Horvat got for one career year and then consider that PLD is younger and better. He easily gets a similar deal to Horvat.

It's fine, you could try lowballing him, but he won't sign it so it defeats the purpose of the offer sheet.

The Horvat comparable is relatively fair. He did hit 31 goals twice and PLD hasn’t “yet”.

Horvat got 8.5, so PLD definitely could get that, and IF the cap goes up, which is no guarantee, certainly more realistic.

In either event, the Habs could still fit him at $8.5m, and as for the other comment about PLD as a true 1C, I hope so, but I usually hear that a proper 1C should be a PPG producer

Nonetheless, I’d be pretty happy with PLD for $8.5m and Suzuki at $7.8 for the next 7-8 yrs.

Plus Bedard at $900k for the next 3yrs….